In comments recorded by Bloomberg, Carey said that Fox and all its affiliate stations will stop broadcasting and move to cable in the event that Aereo is not shut down by the courts. "We need to be able to be fairly compensated for our content," Carey told other executives. "This is not an ideal path we look to pursue, but we can’t sit idly by and let an entity steal our signal. We will move to a subscription model if that’s our only recourse."

Leslie Moonves, the chief executive officer of CBS, told the Times today that he "wholeheartedly supported what Chase said" and that his network had held talks with cable operators about taking its signal off the air. CBS, as well as the other broadcast networks, are in litigation with satellite TV provider Dish Network over the legality of its ad-skipping technology.

This is going to get really interesting for a number of reasons. Most people won't care, as they get all of their programming via MSO like Time Warner or DirecTV. But the issue is that the networks are considering stopping over the air broadcasts (bunny ears) because of the threats they perceive in the Dish Network Hopper and the personal Slingbox style service Aereo.

The government/FCC "owns" the airwaves and they let the broadcasters use them provided they follow some provisions that serve the public good. It will be interesting to see what kind of fight they put up should a major network decide to cease broadcasting and become cable channels. On one hand, the networks are supposed to providing public services and information dissemination. Is that still needed in the newspaperless internet era?

There are also companies like Verizon, TMobile, Cisco, etc who will line up to pay huge sums for the rights to use the radio spectrum the big four are currently occupying.

I still use an aerial for local broadcasts - its just simply higher quality. I also like using it to watch tv outside when the weather permits. But I can't say I would mind too much. I think wireless internet services would be helped greatly by this.

In comments recorded by Bloomberg, Carey said that Fox and all its affiliate stations will stop broadcasting and move to cable in the event that Aereo is not shut down by the courts. "We need to be able to be fairly compensated for our content," Carey told other executives. "This is not an ideal path we look to pursue, but we can’t sit idly by and let an entity steal our signal. We will move to a subscription model if that’s our only recourse."

Leslie Moonves, the chief executive officer of CBS, told the Times today that he "wholeheartedly supported what Chase said" and that his network had held talks with cable operators about taking its signal off the air. CBS, as well as the other broadcast networks, are in litigation with satellite TV provider Dish Network over the legality of its ad-skipping technology.

This is going to get really interesting for a number of reasons. Most people won't care, as they get all of their programming via MSO like Time Warner or DirecTV. But the issue is that the networks are considering stopping over the air broadcasts (bunny ears) because of the threats they perceive in the Dish Network Hopper and the personal Slingbox style service Aereo.

The government/FCC "owns" the airwaves and they let the broadcasters use them provided they follow some provisions that serve the public good. It will be interesting to see what kind of fight they put up should a major network decide to cease broadcasting and become cable channels. On one hand, the networks are supposed to providing public services and information dissemination. Is that still needed in the newspaperless internet era?

There are also companies like Verizon, TMobile, Cisco, etc who will line up to pay huge sums for the rights to use the radio spectrum the big four are currently occupying.

I still use an aerial for local broadcasts - its just simply higher quality. I also like using it to watch tv outside when the weather permits. But I can't say I would mind too much. I think wireless internet services would be helped greatly by this.

Won't happen until the ratings systems change. National advertising is what drives TV revenue, and carriage is what drives the local agreements. They all sell national spots on the reach basis, so until paid TV has the same reach as the OTA's, its never going to change.

These idiots are blowing smoke and hoping nobody sees what is behind the curtain. The simple fact is that cable channels are already producing shows that are much higher quality than anything on the networks. Despite that, they are getting viewers in the range of 2-4 million for hit shows in comparison of 12-14 million for the networks. This disparity strictly from the fact that they are a free broadcast and have a much higher penetration rate in terms of households. No longer free, no longer have that user base. No longer have that user base, no longer have that draw for advertisers. No longer have the draw for advertisers, no longer get the money from advertisers. The networks have been making a killing based on advertising dollars because everyone, everywhere can get that progamming. If they eliminate that, they need to make money on their own merits, and based on recent history, they don't stand a chance.

I welcome these morons making this decision, and then trying to justify to their board of directors why they are 8th in network viewership behind HBO, Showtime, USA, A&E, etc. How they are planning to pay their executives without all those advertising dollars. Why their flagships shows went from 14 million viewers to 2 million. Why their reality programming isn't making crap on a channel that people have to pay for...